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Topic: Re.Questions [#2765] (Read 934 times)

Hi there,I would like to ask you couple of question hoping you could take some time to respond to it.First of all, if you believe that God is imaginary, where do you base that belief? or why do you say God is imaginary? If you don't believe in God at all, then why would still believe that God is an imaginary God?Secondly, most of your verses that you've listed come from the Old Testament which have been taken 'out of context'. How would you understand the point of a story if you don't read what's before and after it? Finally, if you believe that God is imaginary, why would you care to know whether He would heal amputees or not? Because if you don't believe Him at all then you won't believe even if He heals amputees, do you?

Hope to hear from you.

God bless!

-- [name and contact information removed]

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[On how kangaroos could have gotten back to Australia after the flood]: Don't kangaroos skip along the surface of the water? --Kenn

I would like to ask you couple of question hoping you could take some time to respond to it.

You asked more than a couple, but anyway...

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First of all, if you believe that God is imaginary, where do you base that belief? or why do you say God is imaginary?

It's based on the lack of evidence for his existence. You never see an amputee regrowing a limb, or any sort of amazing miracles like in bibletimes. Instead, the most amazing thing we get today is........ seeing the virgin Mary in a tree stump. Or in bird poop.

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If you don't believe in God at all, then why would still believe that God is an imaginary God?

I don't understand this question at all.

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Secondly, most of your verses that you've listed come from the Old Testament which have been taken 'out of context'. How would you understand the point of a story if you don't read what's before and after it?

It's hard to respond to this when you don't give an example of this "taken out of context".

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Finally, if you believe that God is imaginary, why would you care to know whether He would heal amputees or not?

The question is designed to get theists thinking about things. Such as why we never see clear-cut examples of god's miracles in action today, or about the effectiveness of prayers. What about you? Do you think god heals amputees or not?

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Because if you don't believe Him at all then you won't believe even if He heals amputees, do you?

If amputees had their limbs spontaneously regenerate, and this spontaneous regeneration was always preceeded by a prayer, and it was always a prayer to the christain god, then we would wonder if this 'god' thing has some truth to it.

First of all, if you believe that God is imaginary, where do you base that belief? or why do you say God is imaginary? If you don't believe in God at all, then why would still believe that God is an imaginary God?

I do not believe there is an actual sentient being, as described in the torah, bible or koran, that is the all powerful creator of the universe that has a special love for humans. I find no evidence of it. But people believe in this concept. They do things in its name. They write about it, argue about it, have whole organizations dedicated to it. So god is real, at least in some sense.

You could say Darth Vader is real too. Not real in the sense that he is an actual person with mystical powers of The Force. But he exists in literature and film. So you could say Darth Vader is imaginary. This is the same way god is real. Like any other fictional character is real.

Finally, if you believe that God is imaginary, why would you care to know whether He would heal amputees or not? Because if you don't believe Him at all then you won't believe even if He heals amputees, do you?

Of course not. The question is not aimed at non-believers. The question is aimed at a specific kind of xian.

There is a certian type of xian who attempts to justify his or her god beliefs by claiming that people are miraculously healed of various afflictions by divine intervention. The afflictions may include cancer, diabetes, coma, heart conditions, tooth decay, halitosis, spastic colon, etc. We frequently hear anecdotes about how some church group prayed for some guy and the next day he was completely healed.

But there are several problems with this kind of reasoning. First, data shows many of these types of afflictions sometimes "clear up" without any kind of prayers. It seems to be a natural response or a misdiagnosis. Second, people of all religions make the same claims. And last, there is a whole class of ailments that are never, ever cured by prayer or naturally.

People never regrow lost limbs. Lost eyes never regrow in the empty sockets. Retarded people never gain normal mental capacity. Alzheimers and Dementia sufferers never recover. Old people never rejuvenate.

This has clear implications about a god that supposedly heals people. It leaves you only a few conclusions about such a god.

Simple. There is no evidence for the God thing. There have been over 3800 gods thru mankind's history on the planet. I would bet you don't believe in 3799 of them...right? We just take it one God further.

First of all, if you believe that God is imaginary, where do you base that belief? or why do you say God is imaginary? If you don't believe in God at all, then why would still believe that God is an imaginary God?

I don't necessarily believe God is imaginary; I simply do not believe in God because there is no evidence to back up the assertion nor a real honest reason to believe in God.

There is a difference and I can illustrate it this way: If you believe that dragons are imaginary[1] where do you base that belief? Well you've never heard, seen, or felt a dragon. No one has found any carcasses or skeletons. There are no dragon teeth. No reliable photographs exist of dragons. There is no DNA evidence for dragons or anything genetically related that could possibly be "dragon-like". And et cetera on through the many different things I could say. God is the same way. And for that matter all gods and goddesses are like this.

First of all, if you believe that God is imaginary, where do you base that belief? or why do you say God is imaginary?

The assertion that god is imaginary comes from the same place that you assert that aliens have not visited earth and have not abducted humans and have not performed experiments on them. Same place.

There is no evidence for it.

Apparently you have never taken a class in philosophy or training for debates. The person who asserts that something IS true is the one who has the responsibility to prove it. Believers in "god" have never been able to prove that their god exists. Why?

Secondly, most of your verses that you've listed come from the Old Testament which have been taken 'out of context'. How would you understand the point of a story if you don't read what's before and after it?

Did you read the entire book? If you read the entire book, you should have understood that your points of "context" are actually irrelevant. It is a demonstration that the things that god says you should do and he would do in reply simply do not occur. It's a ruse. There is no amount of context you can apply to a ruse. A ruse is a ruse. Period.

Finally, if you believe that God is imaginary, why would you care to know whether He would heal amputees or not? Because if you don't believe Him at all then you won't believe even if He heals amputees, do you?

You like putting the cart in front of your horse, don't you?

As atheists, who is likely to bother us or attempt to change our world? Christians. What do Christians profess? Christians profess that your life can be made better by worship of god and making prayers to him that will be answered. What is the best demonstration of a prayer being answered? Amputees.

No amputees have ever had their limbs regenerated. Why? There is no god. God is a delusion. God is imaginary.

Now that I have placed the cart behind your horse, you can proceed in reverse as normal.

Hi there,I would like to ask you couple of question hoping you could take some time to respond to it.First of all, if you believe that God is imaginary, where do you base that belief? or why do you say God is imaginary? If you don't believe in God at all, then why would still believe that God is an imaginary God?Secondly, most of your verses that you've listed come from the Old Testament which have been taken 'out of context'. How would you understand the point of a story if you don't read what's before and after it? Finally, if you believe that God is imaginary, why would you care to know whether He would heal amputees or not? Because if you don't believe Him at all then you won't believe even if He heals amputees, do you?

Hope to hear from you.

God bless!

-- [name and contact information removed]

Why the word games? Yes I believe Yahweh is imaginary. Where do I base this belief? People claims about Yahweh are indistinguishable from pure fantasy. Just because it is a popular belief does not preclude it being a false one.

Furthermore the claim, there is an invisible cosmic being that had to sacrifice himself to himself to avert his own wrath towards the creations he knew weren't going to live up to his expectations....is extraordinary.

If a claim like that is to be believed, a sensible person should have evidence. Evidence that distinguishes the claim from fiction.

No such evidence has been presented.

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An Omnipowerful God needed to sacrifice himself to himself (but only for a long weekend) in order to avert his own wrath against his own creations who he made in a manner knowing that they weren't going to live up to his standards.

Secondly, most of your verses that you've listed come from the Old Testament which have been taken 'out of context'. How would you understand the point of a story if you don't read what's before and after it?

Concerning this, I have to wonder; how do you feel about christians that quote bible passages out of context? We hear "John 3:16!" "John 3:16!" all the time, and it's quoted without any context. Likewise, so many christians do not read their bible. They just, at best, get a cliff note summery of the major stories. Does it bother you that they don't read what's before and after those stories?

For that matter, what about when the bible quote itself out of context? The book of Matthew is really bad about this (something the main site brings up).

On my campus I see students wearing t-shirts that just identify a bible verse. I have also seen bumper stickers and once a license plate with a verse. I guess you are supposed to either know what it is already or rush home and look it up.

On my campus I see students wearing t-shirts that just identify a bible verse. I have also seen bumper stickers and once a license plate with a verse. I guess you are supposed to either know what it is already or rush home and look it up.

There's a drugstore in my town who has a digital sign out front that 99% of the time just puts out Bible verses. The chapter name/number then the actual verse.

I find it ironic them being a DRUGstore, and all.

-Nam

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Quote from: David Garrett Arnold

there are oceans of words aged in prayer,against geometric lines, and cloudbeaten skies;credulous allure—slowly captivated in hearts fair—trees and flowers bloomed in grace upon one's eyes.